


Mixed-Up

by merryghoul



Category: Mr. Robot (TV)
Genre: Children, Gen, Kid Fic, Literary References & Allusions, Museums, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-01 14:59:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8628793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: How Elliot and Angela ended up going to the Queens Museum when they meant to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when they were younger.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [millari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/millari/gifts).



> This fic has mentions of several elements from the book _From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,_ a book that has been seen and referenced a lot in _Mr. Robot._ Hence the "literary references  & allusions" tag.

The first thing Angela learned from E.L. Konigsburg's _From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_ was to never settle. Angela thought her life was similar to the book's protagonist, Claudia Kincaid. According to the book's narrator, Mrs. Frankweiler, Claudia was subjected to a monotonous and tedious daily routine: running the dishwasher every night, setting the table, arguing over the family's seven-thirty television show. Angela couldn't relate to having a mother, having lost her own mother in 1993. But she certainly could relate to a daily routine of preparing to go to school, actually being in school, going back to do homework, doing chores, and getting into arguments with her father before going to bed. 

After finishing _From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,_ Angela decided she wanted to be more like Claudia. She wanted to run away _to_ someplace, not _from_ home, just like Claudia. She also chose the Metropolitan Museum of Art to run away too, just like Claudia, making plans to sleep in the museum's state bed (which, by the mid-1990s, didn't exist in the Met) and shower in the museum's fountains.

* * *

Claudia decided to travel to the Met with an accomplice, to make sure Claudia didn't spend all her money on sweet things. Claudia chose her brother Jamie, who was good at handling money. Angela opted to travel to the Met with Elliot. For one, he also knew about _From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler._ Before Elliot's father died, Elliot's father read the book to him. And if Jamie was an expert at saving money, Elliot was an expert in stealing it. Angela was confident that between the two of them, they would be able to save up enough fare to run away to the Met. It was easy for them to bring up the book in conversation as they were hanging out in Elliot's room.

“Don't you think Claudia is cool?” 

“I guess she's cool.” Elliot hesitated while answering. 

“How could you not think she's cool?”

“I never said that.”

“Claudia ran away to the Met because it's comfortable. She studied New York City to run away. She found a train pass in a trash can to get on the train. Even her name's cool. I wish I was named Claudia.”

“What's wrong with your name? I like Angela.”

“Angela's an okay name, but I like Claudia better.” Angela paused. “We should run away to the Met.”

“How are we doing that?” 

“We can save money. Don't you still steal from people?”

“Yeah.”

Angela nodded. “We should get enough for train fare. And the automat,” Angela said, not realizing the last automat in New York closed in 1991.

* * *

After Angela and Elliot saved and stole enough money for train fare, the two of them believed they were ready to go to the Met. They almost followed the plot of _From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_ to the letter. They packed clean underwear in their bookbags, since they lacked the instrument cases Claudia and her younger brother, Jamie, owned in the book. Angela wrote letters to her father and Elliot's mother and Darlene, explaining they were leaving home and running away to the Met. They bought train fare to get to New York City, and they bought MetroCards at the Times Square Station. 

_From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler_ never specified what trains Claudia and her younger brother, Jamie, took to get to the Met. Angela and Elliot could've chosen the 1 train or the C train. If they departed the train on the right train stop, they could've walked their way to the Met, just like Claudia and Jamie. Angela and Elliot ended up on the 7 train, which didn't go north of Times Square, but east. 

Elliot and Angela were sitting near each other on the 7 train when the train left the Hunters Points Avenue station, when the two of them could see Queens from the train. “We're not going to the Met,” he said. 

“I know.”

Elliot looked out the window behind him. “We're in Queens.”

“How do you know?”

“My family's been here a few times. But we haven't spent a lot of time here, especially after my dad died.”

Angela yanked his shirt. “Why are you still looking out the window?”

“I think there's a museum ahead. I heard about it. The Queens Museum. I don't know which stop it's at.”

“Do you know if it's beautiful like the Met?”

“I don't know. I just know it's a museum.” 

“We may as well go there. I think it's too late to go to the Met now.”

* * *

Elliot did find out the stop Angela and he needed to get off at to reach the Queens Museum: the Willets Point–Shea Stadium station. After leaving the station, the two of them walked unnoticed onto the pedestrian bridge near the train station.

The two followed signs to get to Queens Museum, but there were other points of interest along the way. “I think that's the new tennis court,” Elliot said as Angela and he passed the United States Tennis Association National Tennis Center. “I read about it in the _New York Times._ I think it opens next year.” (At the time, the new tennis court, meant to replace the Louis Armstrong Stadium as the main court of the US Open, was not yet named after Arthur Ashe.) 

“It looks like it's going to be huge.”

“I think it is going to be huge.”

The two also stopped at the Unisphere. “I guess this is where we're supposed to bathe,” Elliot said when they arrived. “I hope they turn the fountain off sometimes.” 

“It's far from the Queens Museum,” Angela added. “We'll bring our bookbags out here so we can change underwear fast.”

* * *

Angela and Elliot hid out near the Queens Museum. Security would stop Angela and Elliot if they attempted to get inside the museum by themselves. They waited until a tour group with older schoolchildren entered the museum. Elliot and Angela ran up to the tour group and slid in without being noticed. 

There was no angel sculpture created by Michelangelo in the Queens Museum. There was no elaborate bed with a canopy or sarcophagi to hide anything in. But there were things unique to the Queens Museum the Met didn't have. Elliot and Angela ran around the _Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System._ They walked through the museum's Tiffany glass collection and the collection of items from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs. But the exhibit that captivated Angela, and especially Elliot, was the _Panorama of the City of New York._ The two went into the exhibit and stopped in their tracks. 

Every building that existed in the city at that time was there. The Americas Tower, One Court Square, Coney Island—every building. 

“This is awesome,” Angela said. “Don't you think this is awesome, Elliot?”

Elliot nodded. “This is awesome.” Elliot pointed at the E Corp building. “There's Evil Corp.”

“Evil Corp? You mean E Corp?”

“Yeah. E Corp. I wish I could take Evil Corp off this map.”

Angela nodded. “Yeah. Me too.”

* * *

_The Panorama of the City of New York_ was where a security guard found Elliot and Angela. The guard asked where their parents or their guardians were. When Elliot and Angela couldn't come up with an answer, the security guard detained the two to the Queens Museum security room. 

Angela's father wasn't available to pick Angela up from the museum, but Elliot's mother and Darlene were. She scolded Elliot, and only Elliot, on the train rides back to their neighborhood.

* * *

“Let's run away again,” Angela said in Elliot's bedroom.

“Why? We got caught. Didn't you hear my mom on the train?”

“She was mean.”

“She was.” 

“We know we can't spend the night in the Queens Museum. There isn't a bed in there. And that security guard will catch us and throw us out. But we still can run away. We just have to be home by the time school's out. That way your mother and my father won't know.”

“We can't miss school all the time. They're gonna look for us too.”

“I know. That's why we'll go back every so often. That way no one will know what's going on.”

“Okay.”

“We're only running away to a place, not running away from home. We have to come home. At least for now. Okay, Elliot?”

“Okay.”

* * *

Elliot saved and stole more money. When he felt like he had enough money to get back on the trains to the Queens Museum, he invited Angela back to his room.

Elliot showed Angela the saved money, which was tucked away in a shoebox. “So? You think we have enough money to go back?”

“I think so.”

“When are we going back?”

“We can go back tomorrow. We'll get on the bus and get off at school. And then we'll sneak off and take a bus into the city. I think that's enough for bus fare and the 7 train.”

“What about the security guard? I think he knows our faces.”

“We'll worry about that later.”

* * *

By the time Elliot's teacher was calling his name in class, it was too late. Angela and he were on a bus bound for the Port Transit Authority bus stop, heading towards Queens Museum, Angela and Elliot's new home away from home.

**Author's Note:**

> The Willets Point–Shea Stadium station is now known as the Mets-Willets Point station.


End file.
